Hello and welcome to a special episode of Women of Balls, sponsored by Lloyd's Banking Group.

We'll make up half of the workforce in the UK, yet when it comes to high-skilled, high-income jobs in tech, just 26% a female, with men in 77% of exact level roles.

Having a job as a tech professional no longer conforms

to the Silicon Valley stereotypes. Jobs filter into almost every sector and applicants are discovering

they don't need a maths or tech background to retrain themselves. But given the growing sector,

where are the women? Research shows that the gender gap in technology starts at school and carries on through every stage of a women's life. The government's approach to bridging

the gap has focused on STEM subjects in schools, but should more emphasis be placed on

encouraging women of all ages to learn new skills and explore opportunities that could

offer career progression. To discuss this, I'm joined by Sharon Doherty, who's the Chief People and Places

Officer at Lloyd's Banking Group. Nusratgarni, Conservative MP for Wilden East Sussex,

and Minister for both Business and Trade and the Cabinet Office. Finally, Annalisa Dodds,

Labour MP for Oxford East and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities.

So to start off, Sharon,

I wonder if I could come to you, which is when we are talking about tech jobs, I think there's

obviously that stereotype. And I say this is someone who's married to a coder of a young guy in a

t-shirt sitting on a beanbag and a wee work. But tech jobs encompass much more these days.

What do you think we're talking about here?

Yeah, there are a few of those and we like them, so that's all good.

Yeah, so what's a tech job?

I think about it in two ways, really.

Firstly, there are those people that design, build and run technology,

and I think all of us are finding that we need more and more of those types of people inside

...